Just six voters visit Birmingham polling station for police commissioner elections

Counting agents in Birmingham relieve the boredom at the PCC elections

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A Birmingham polling station was visited by just six people in 15 hours as voters snubbed the police and crime commissioner elections, new figures have revealed.

The polling station at the Birmingham City University in Franchise Street was the worst attended of the city’s 442 ballot stations during the November 15 election, which saw Labour’s Bob Jones chosen as the West Midlands first elected police chief.

A further two polling stations, both at the Birmingham Science Park in Holt Street, next to Aston University, were visited by eight and ten voters – suggesting that students were simply not engaged in the police poll.

The turnouts of 0.5 to 0.7 per cent were the poorest in the city, which saw a 12.8 per cent vote over all – the lowest turnout in election history.

A total of 138 polling stations, almost a third of the total, saw less than 100 voters on the day, with turnouts of between four and seven per cent.

The BCU polling station is in the constituency of Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood, who was not surprised at the lack of interest.

“The area covered by the PCC election was huge and there were not sufficient resources put into campaigning to inform people, especially as it was the first time for these elections,’’ he said.

Bob Jones at the PCC elections count in Birmingham

“The November timing was not good either. If the Government is serious about police commissioners there needs to be more effort and more resources in future.”

The breakdown by polling station was issued by the council’s election office.

It showed that while voting was very much down across the board it was especially low, below 10 per cent, in white working class suburbs like Shard End, Kingstanding, Castle Vale and Longbridge, as well as the inner city areas of Ladywood, Handsworth and Lozells.

With polling stations overseen by at least two members of staff all day and many schools having to close for teacher training for the poll, the election has proved a very costly way of collecting a handful of votes.

The Electoral Commission has also criticised the Government over the handling and timing of the elections and is set to issue a report to Parliament.